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Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Moist and healthy bran muffins made without bran cereal, sweetened with honey. Going whole grain never tasted so good (recipe here).

I bought six pounds of pears during a recent shopping trip, so the other day I whipped up a quick batch of these 100% Whole Grain Ginger Pear Bran Muffins. The trick is to wait until the pears are so ripe and sweet they look bruised and battered and pathetic.

My foodie mom and I came up with this scrumptious variation of my super popular 100% Whole Grain Bran Muffins during one of her eat-a-thon farm visits a few years back. They're moist and flavorful and are made with hefty portions of both soluble fiber (oat bran) and insoluble fiber (wheat bran). They're sweetened with honey (although there is some sugar in the candied ginger) and they don't call for any store bought bran cereal (a pet peeve with me and bran muffin recipes).

This recipe makes 12 large muffins which taste even better the second day and freeze beautifully. I just toss them into a two gallon zipper freezer bag (these are also great for storing big loaves of homemade bread, like Farmhouse White) and pull out one or two the night before so they're defrosted for breakfast the next morning. They make a filling and wholesome snack and are the perfect thing to have on hand during the busy holiday season.

Need more convincing? Here's what Farmgirl Fare readers are saying about (and how they're adapting)this recipe:

More below. . .

—These muffins are fabulous. I need to go out and get some more pears so I can make them again.

—Your mom is right; I think these are the best muffins I have ever eaten.

—I am sitting in my chair, drinking my coffee and eating this fabulous Ginger Pear Bran muffin! Excellent recipe and I loved the photo of the bruised and battered pear!!!

—I just made these muffins and they are SOOOO DELICIOUS! The muffins are ginger-y good and so moist you don't need butter. Thanks, Farmgirl!

—I've made these muffins four or five times now, with different variations, and they never cease to be a crowd pleaser.

—These are fantastic!

—These are the best muffins around.

One of the things I love most about food blogging is hearing how readers have adapted my recipes and made them their own. My original bran muffin recipe is wonderfully versatile, and as you can see, this variation is too:

—I just tried this finally but I used pineapple instead of pear. I had no pears and I had no canned pears so I had some canned, in their own juice, pineapple and I subbed brown rice syrup for the honey. These are so good. Thanks for the excellent recipe.

—I made these today. I didn't have quite enough pear so I added a 1/2 a finely chopped apple and subbed 2 T fresh grated ginger and about 1 T natural sugar for the candied ginger. A big hit with me, the roomie and our dinner guest (who was randomly noshing in my kitchen while I cooked).

—I tried making them with oat bran only (increased soluble fiber) and agave nectar (low glycemic). I also added cinammon, cardamon and nutmeg. They are delicious and super healthy.

—I love these muffins. The changes I made are: I used 3 cups of oat bran, used agave nectar instead of honey, and walnuts instead of ginger. Lower glycemic and delicious!

—Wonderful muffins! I added a tsp of powdered ginger and used half molasses, half honey. Super yum. Thanks for a great recipe to play with.

—Thank you thank you for such a scrumptious and healthy muffin recipe! I used half canned peaches and half canned pears (that my grandma canned), since I didn't have enough pears. I also didn't have enough honey, so I used 1/2 C. brown sugar plus 1/4 C. molasses. I can't tell you how many times I said "This is so GOOD!" while eating my first two. My husband probably thought I'd discovered gold. Thanks again!

—I just found your site and this amazing pear muffin recipe and I am hooked! I used vanilla yogurt and added some cranberries and WOW! The best bran muffin I have ever eaten. Thanks!

Can't survive on muffins alone?You'll find links to all my sweet and savory Less Fuss, More Flavor recipes in the Farmgirl Fare Recipe Index.

3 comments:

Oh yeah - it's that time of year when your bran muffins are a regular (whoa pun) around our house. Though I will admit to totally unhealthying them by splitting them open, toasting them and giving them a good dose of cream cheese.

Made these last week and they were SO moist and delicious! They were such a treat with my morning cup of Greek yogurt. We ate them plain but I would have loved to have slathered on cream cheese frosting and pretended they were cupcakes. I have 3 left in the freezer--I may succumb yet...

December 2015 update: Hi! For some reason I can't figure out, Blogger hasn't been letting me leave comments on my own blog (!) for the last several months, so I've been unable to respond to your comments and questions. My apologies for any inconvenience! You're always welcome to email me: farmgirlfare AT gmail DOT com.

Hi! Thanks for visiting Farmgirl Fare and taking the time to write. While I'm not always able to reply to every comment, I receive and enjoy reading them all.

Your feedback is greatly appreciated, and I especially love hearing about your experiences with my recipes. Comments on older posts are always welcome!

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I try my best to answer all questions, though sometimes it takes me a few days. And sometimes, I'm sorry to say, they fall through the cracks, and for that I sincerely apologize.

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